London — The first medal event of the London Olympics in track and field is over with Reese Hoffa of the U.S. claiming a bronze medal in the shot put. Teammate Christian Cantwell finished fourth.

Tomasz Majewski of Poland won the gold with a throw of 21.89 meters and David Storl of Germany claimed silver (21.86).

Hoffa threw 21.23, Cantwell 21.19.

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the women’s 10,000 meters in 30:20.75 with a 62-second final lap, repeating as Olympic champion. Sally Kipyego and Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya took silver and bronze.

Amy Hastings was the top American in 11th with a time of 31:10.69. Janet Bawcom-Cherobo, a naturalized Kenyan running for the U.S. who finished second in the Bolder Boulder, was 12th 31:12.68 and Lisa Uhl 13th in 31:12.80. All three Americans ran personal-best times.

On the heels of the expulsion of eight badminton players from the Olympics for trying to lose, we get this:

Philip Hindes, a 19-year-old German-born member of the British cycling squad, suggested to British reporters that he’d purposefully crashed in the qualifying round of the men’s team sprint in order to erase a poor start.

“We were saying if we have a bad start we need to crash to get a restart,” Hindes said, according to guardian.co.uk. “I just crashed, I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride. I did it. So it was all planned, really.”

According to the Guardian,

Hindes had wobbled out of the start gate and lost control of his bike before tumbling to the track at the beginning of the first bend as his [teammates] rolled past him, prompting officials to restart the heat.

Track cycling rules state that a race will restart after an early crash. (Watch the race on this link; it begins around the 36-minute mark.)

[In] a BBC interview straight after the race Hindes also said: “I just did it to get the restart. My first wasn’t the greatest so I thought to get the restart.”

Interviewer Jill Douglas then asked him: “So there was a bit of kidology there?” Hindes appeared to not understand the phrase so she then asked: “So you were trying to pull a fast one there?”

Hindes then replied: “Yes, I was trying to get a fast start and get everything perfect.”

Hindes’ initial comments came on the heels of Great Britain’s win over Germany in the qualifying round. (His three-man team went on to win gold over France.) But when asked about it during a press conference after the race, according to the Sydney Morning Herald,

[Hindes balked at first], or appeared to not understand the question. Reporters who had not heard his initial comments were taken aback more by the question itself.

“No,” Hindes said, with a blank look on his face. “I just went out the gate and just lost control, just fell down. My back wheel slipped and totally lost control and then I couldn’t handle the bike any more and just crashed.”

British officials have said his comments were “lost in translation,” according to both papers. (Hindes moved to England in October 2010, according to the Guardian, and is “still learning English.”)

The International Cycling Union said the result of the qualifying race “was not in question,” according to the Guardian, and the International Olympic Committee said it wouldn’t investigate. (And Great Britain, in fact, will keep the gold according to dailymail.co.uk.)

French coach Florian Rousseau told the Guardian that while he thought “there was no cheating” in the qualifying round, “I do think the rules need to be more precise so we don’t find ourselves in an identical situation at another Olympic Games.”

“The fact that (Hindes) did it on purpose is not very good for the image of cycling,” Rousseau added. “We must reflect on how we can adapt the rules so that does not happen again in future.”

LONDON — Emma Coburn’s parents were in awe — and filled with pride — when they visited her at the Olympic athlete village after arriving here Wednesday.

Coburn, 21, runs for the University of Colorado and will compete with teammate Shalaya Kipp in steeplechase qualifying Saturday.

“The first day we got to go into the athlete village, (which) was really just stunning,” said Bill Coburn, who lives in Crested Butte with his wife Annie. “You can see the stadium from the athlete village. Everyone has their flags on their balconies, except for the Americans. I guess for security reasons, they tell them not to identify themselves.”

The Coburns visited the apartment Emma is sharing with Kipp, where she showed them all the free swag she has received, including steeplechase spikes with a gold insert on the bottom of the forefoot.

“It’s just kind of overwhelming, the amount of stuff,” Coburn said.

“Then you go in the dining hall. It’s just enormous, and it’s Thai food, Indian food, American food, British food, Russian food. And it all smells great. In there is all these athletes, all in their sweats, and it’s really fun people watching. Half of these sweats look like they’re from the ’70s. The Russians’ are so hideous. It’s like paisley.”

Seeing all those athletes together, Coburn was gripped by the enormity of his daughter’s achievement.

“You’re walking around looking at these athletes, and it really struck me — she’s at the Olympics, and she belongs,” Coburn said. “It’s not like she just squeaked in. She’s an Olympian, and she’s one of these elite athletes. It was just an overwhelmingly proud moment, just to be with her in there.

“She just takes it in stride. None of this gets to her. She’s not overwhelmed by it. She’s grateful for it, but in some ways she doesn’t even seem that impressed by it. It’s just kind of part of what she does.”

I’ve been struck by her kindness and groundedness, too. She is a remarkable young woman.

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LONDON — Track cycling gets in full swing Thursday and the Brits should dominate like no other sport. Sports Illustrated projects Team GB to win two golds, a silver and a bronze in the five events.

But where else Team GB is excelling is soccer. Since they invented the sport, it shouldn’t be a shock except the Brits historically have never given two pence for age group soccer which, essentially, is what Olympic soccer is.

The men’s and women’s teams both have made the quarterfinals and they’ve become the hottest ticket in the Olympics. Millennium Stadium was filled with 70,438 fans to watch the men beat Uruguay, 1-0, Wednesday. The women drew 70,584 for their 1-0 upset over Brazil Tuesday.

But in this country, the Premiership holds king. And the Brits have long memories. Playing for Uruguay was Liverpool’s Luis Suarez who was lustily booed for his racial abuse of Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. The offense landed Suarez an eight-game suspension.

The incident happened in October.

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Not great? Tough. It has to happen. Bradley Wiggins’ time trial gold medal put him past SIR Steve Redgrave as Britain’s most decorated Olympic cyclist. Track cyclist Sir Chris Hoy was knighted after his three golds in Beijing brought his gold tally to four and five overall.

Throw in Wiggins’ Tour de France win two weeks ago, making him the first British winner, and the Royal Family has no choice. Well, yes, it does, Wiggins said.

“To be mentioned in the same breath as Redgrave and Hoy is an honor,” he said. “Ultimately it’s about gold for me anyway.”

LONDON — The Australian media is targeted its women’s disappointing swim team for a poor showing, in the pool and out, particularly its negative reaction to losses. Emily Seebohm lost to Centennial 17-year-old Missy Franklin in Monday’s 100 backstroke final and sobbed her way through the media mixed zone afterward.

Then she blamed part of her loss on her addiction to social media.

But the Aussie press has saved its most biting commentary for Leisel Jones, Australia’s legendary swimmer who has won eight medals in the last two Olympics. It’s not knocking her performance. It’s knocking her figure. The Herald Sun wrote, “The Olympic veteran’s figure is in stark contrast to that of 2008.”

HAMPTON COURT, England — It’s been the best summer of Bradley Wiggins life and this is a guy who had won six world track championships and three gold medals. Within a 10-day span he became the first Brit to win the Tour de France then the first man to win Le Tour and the Olympic road time trial championship in the same year.

Wiggins, who rode with Boulder-based Team Garmin in 2009, pulled it off Wednesday in picturesque Hampton Court. The effort makes him the most decorated Olympic cyclist in Great Britain’s history with four gold, one silver and two bronze, topping Steve Redgrave’s six.

“I guess someone will be inspired by this,” Wiggins said. “They keep banging on about legacy but it is the athletes themselves who inspire. And this is a facility that costs nothing to use. When this is over anyone can ride the circuit we rode pretending to be us. They have been riding up Box Hill since the beginning of the year. That is the thing about cycling.

“It’s accessible to anybody.”

I asked Boulder’s Taylor Phinney, who finished an agonizing fourth for the second time in five days, what makes Wiggins special. Phinney should know. He has idolized Wiggins for years and followed his path from track cycling to the road.

“Wiggins over the years has found a higher level of dedication than a lot of other athletes,” Phinney said. “Just in the past year and a half, two years he’s really sacrificed a lot when it comes to his personal life in order to be the best cyclist in the world.

“He’s gone and lived on top of a volcano for most of the year and not bringing a computer with him and not really seeing his kids. It’s a testament to what it takes to be Wiggo, to get on top of that podium.”

Wiggins credits much of his success on the road to cutting back on his partying. He admitted after Wednesday’s win that he might have a vodka tonic or two to celebrate, then go to the velodrome and watch his British teammates who are expected to dominate the track.

“You train all year for results,” he said. “You can’t train or plan for what happens in terms of all of this. I want to go back to a normal life.”

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HAMPTON COURT, England — LOCOG has done a terrific job with its London Olympics. Most of the venues are within walking distance of each other, transportation is running smoothly and, as I said, they have terrific meat pies in most of the working press centres.

Where they really excelled was in the cycling time trial venue. They chose Hampton Court, a village in the southern England county of Surrey and home of the Hampton Court Palace. It’s without question the greatest backdrop of an Olympic event I’ve ever seen. It even tops the one in Beijing.

Think about it. How in the world do you top the Great Wall of China?

But the Hampton Court Palace is the former home of King Henry VIII and looks it. It’s your basic castle, complete with turrets and jagged upper walls as if the city was bracing for the Goths to invade.

Organizers also had three chairs sitting in front of the palace. As each cyclist took the lead, he sat in the middle chair, a real golden throne built for a king. As he moved down the standings, he’d move to a chair to the left, then the right, then the shower.

When local hero Bradley Wiggins won the time trial, he looked absolutely royal sitting on the throne. No, he didn’t look anything like King Henry VIII. I shudder to think what ol’ Hefty Hank looked like in Lycra.

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London — It’s every international traveler’s nightmare: Losing your wallet.

This morning when I was about to leave my hotel room for another work day sure to last 14-16 hours, I discovered my wallet wasn’t where I normally keep it.

The mind races, the heart pounds. What if somebody is using my credit cards at this very moment? How long will it take to cancel credit cards — calling the U.S. from England — and get new ones? How am I going to do that and get all my work done? How long will it take to get new credit cards here, and how am I supposed to eat in the meantime?

I tried to eat a big breakfast (free at our hotel), thinking it might be my only meal of the day, but couldn’t force it down. My stomach was in a knot.

“Trying to play the catch up game in amateur boxing is not going to work. I’m learning from this experience and being here at the Olympics. The trainers did a great job, every time I came back to the corner, they said, ‘Stick to the game plan.’ I wasn’t sticking to the game plan and in the middle of a bout, you can’t second guess yourself and I was doing a lot of that.”

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HAMPTON COURT, England — It’s cycling, which means it’s a trip into the sticks. Fortunately, cycling officials always pick the prettiest places to end races. I have fallen in love with the nation of France after spending so many lovely evenings in towns I’d never heard of. Never mind it always took me two hours to find the press rooms, the hotels and any restaurant serving anything more than chips and baguettes that late. I still loved the drives, however maddening.

For the cycling time trial, LOCOG picked this quaint little town in Surrey County. It’s a 40-minute train ride south from central London and an absolute gem for a lunch along the Thames. The start and finish line are near the town center where little cafes hug the river, as steady as glass and as inviting as an English picnic even in Wednesday’s overcast weather.

Hampton Court is home to the Hampton Court Palace, arguably England’s greatest Tudor palace and former part-time home of King Henry VIII. In 1515 the Lord Chancellor of England, Cardinal Thomas Wosley, built himself a palace complete with a turreted outer wall. Just, you know, because he could. Wosley eventually gave the palace to King Henry who was trying to get a divorce and needed a hot bachelor pad.

He got it then expanded it, adding a Great Hall, a Chapel Royal and a massive kitchen to keep feeding the biggest paunch in England.

Today, it’s one of London’s best day trips. I didn’t have time to go. Besides, it has a 300-year-old maze and I already survived one maze this summer.

In this July 31, 2012 file photo, China's Ye Shiwen poses with her gold medal for the women's 200-meter individual medley swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Chinese reacted angrily to doping accusations swirling around their newest swimming superstar Ye who won two gold medals at the London Olympics.

LONDON — Former Australian swimming hero Ian Thorpe is sticking it to the Americans questioning the validity of the two gold medals won by 16-year-old Chinese star Ye Shiwen. Her massive drop in times — seven seconds in the 400 freestyle.

Thorpe said, “We have to take the nationality out of this.”

Oh, yeah? He thinks it’s prejudice against the Chinese? After Michelle Smith, from our charming cousin country Ireland, won three gold medals in Atlanta in 1996, American swimmer Janet Evans accused her of doping. The U.S. press joined the chorus.

Two years later she was banned for four years for tampering with a urine sample. The IOC didn’t strip the medals from her as the positive test came after the Olympics but the U.S. critics didn’t care if she was from Ireland or England or Maryland. Her performance raised suspicions.

HAMPTON COURT, England — Some of the things I love about the Olympics are the fans’ outfits. They get very creative in representing their country: American fans dressed up like George Washington, Spanish fans dressed like matadors, Aussie fans dressed like kangaroos.

On the train ride out here for the men’s cycling time trial, I saw one of the best. It was simple and subtle but ever so powerful.

I saw a guy coming out to root on Canadian cycling hero Ryder Hesjedal simply carrying a red and white hockey stick. Think about it. A guy carrying a hockey stick through rural England. It was perfect.

Ralph Van Bruggen and his wife, Kim, came from Hesjedal’s hometown of Victoria, British Columbia. During Saturday’s road race, they stood on the Mall near the finish, no doubt the only people in Great Britain holding aloft a hockey stick in public. When Hesjedal passed them he actually pumped an acknowledging fist at them.

Hesjedal, who rides professional for Boulder-based Team Garmin-Sharp, is a hero in Canada for more reasons than just being the first Canadian to win the Giro d’Italia. He started Ryder’s Cycling Society of Canada to raise funds for the sport in his own country.

He started the Tour de Victoria, a hugely popular local race, and auctioned off his first pink jersey from the Giro. From the proceeds he gave $6,000 to Denise Ramsden, who represented Canada in Sunday’s road race.

Missy Franklin wipes a tear after the playing of the National Anthem during the awards ceremony. Missy captured her first Gold Medal with a time of 58.33 in the Women's 100m Backstroke Monday, July 30, 2012 during the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

Forgotten amid Missy Franklin’s Olympic medal march, her choice of college and the potential riches if she ever turns pro is she still has a senior year at Regis Jesuit High School.

Her father, Dick Franklin, said here Tuesday night that she has not decided if she’ll swim for Regis next season. She will continue training with the Colorado Stars but may focus on international meets rather than participate in the high school season.

“There are meets during the year around the world,” Dick said. “(High school swimming) might conflict with her training and there’s a little sense about taking away the time for the other swimmers.”

LONDON — The biggest surprise of the London Olympics? It’s not the lack of traffic problems. It’s not the empty seats. It’s not even Lithuania’xs 15-year-old Ruta Meilutye, who went from 14th ranked entering the meet to beating defending Olympic champion Rebecca Soni in the 100 breaststroke.

It’s the press room food.

In six Olympics, this is the best press food I’ve ever had. In England. Over Italy, Australia, the U.S. and Canada. That’s a bigger upset than Meilutye.

But I’m serious. All the press is raving about it. Monday in the swimming venue I had a steak and kale pie that was piping hot, full of beef and a crust that was as flaky as my mom’s coconut cream pie. At the shooting venue I had barbecued sausage that was firm, juicy and had the rich taste all the way through, not just on the surface as you get in baseball stadium franks.

Every venue has a chicken pasta salad with big hunks of cooked chicken with pasta in a biting sauce. The boxed bacon, cheese and cucumber sandwiches taste like they were made that day.

And for dessert, every venue has these banana toffee bars that are absolutely deadly. They’re as addicting as crack. Oh, Lord. This blog is making me hungry. And guess what? In London it’s lunchtime.

LONDON — I didn’t see it but a British reporter saw enough of the mayhem after Missy Franklin won her gold medal in the 100 backstroke to ask her about it. Apparently, a bunch of sponsors and potential endorsers swooped down on her after her win.

It’s understandable. She’s 17, never stops smiling, incredibly bright, healthy and cheerful and attractive. She’s also going to be on TV as much as Bob Costas this week, probably on the medal stand. I haven’t talked to sports marketers yet but I’m hearing if Franklin went pro she’d earn millions in endorsements.

That’s usually way overrated but enough for her to at least explore the possibility of going pro. But every time I talk to her she mentions her quest to swim in college, go to college, be a college girl. She loves being part of a college team. I can imagine she’s even looking forward to the state swim meet next year as a senior for Regis Jesuit High School.

For what it’s worth, here’s how she addressed the issue after she won her first gold medal Monday night: “I think it’s definitely going to be hard with everything coming up. I do want to swim in college more than anything. But I’m not thinking about that right now. It’s only Day 3 of the Olympics. There are five more to go. I’m waiting until the end of the meet. We’ll see what happens but swimming collegiately is something I’ve always wanted to do and I have a passion for.”

She’s narrowed her choices, for now, to California, Georgia and USC. My early guess is Cal, especially with her chance of observing Cal coach Teri McKeever as the head coach of the Olympic women’s swim team. She takes her first recruiting visit to Berkeley Aug. 31. But maybe she’ll turn pro before the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Missy Franklin of the USA Swim Team speaks during a press conference at the Main Press Center on July 26, 2012 in London, England.

LONDON — You know Missy Franklin has hit the big time when the mass media has so many interview requests she has to hold a press conference is arranged before her event — for her parents.

It’s true. D.A. and Dick Franklin have received so many media inquiries about their daughter that USA Swimming called a press conference today for 6 p.m. London time. Missy Franklin shoots for her third medal in three events in the 200 freestyle at 7:45 p.m. (12:45 p.m. MDT).

I understand the frenzy. It’s not just that the 17-year-old from Centennial is the new face of American swimming, especially after her first gold medal Monday night, but her parents could win the award for the best interviews in the Olympic Park. The couple, both Canadian natives, are a reporter’s dream. They talk in perfect two-paragraph anecdotes.

Here’s a sample from D.A. last night, after Franklin beat the American record in winning the 100 backstroke: “We can’t believe we’re at the Olympics let alone Missy winning a gold medal. We’ve traveled so much. We’ve been to international meets in Shanghai, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Barcelona. This seems like another international meet. Then you see the rings and you realize it’s the Olympics.

“Winning a bronze medal (Saturday) was really incredible. Anything else was gravy. This gold is a lot more than gravy.”

Then here is Dick’s classic: When I asked the last time he cried before watching his daughter win the gold medal Monday, he said, “When she was born.”

Twice I’ve had reporters come up to me and say, “Why can’t they all be like that?”

Maybe they’re the reason Missy is Missy.

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LONDON — If Missy Mania has swept America, it has barely reached outside the Olympic Aquatics Centre. The 17-year-old from Centennial won her first gold medal Monday night and the rabid British press barely made her a footnote Tuesday.

Most papers may have had early deadlines for their street editions. I didn’t see a word on her 100 backstroke win in The Times of London but her picture did grace the top of The Guardian’s Olympic section. On Page 4, under the headline, “Franklin’s first gold gives weight to the hype,” Donald McRae wrote, “Franklin, in a compelling backstroke battle against Australia’s Emily Seebohm, fulfilled a large chunk of the hype that has followed her to London. She also showed why she is called The Missle during a destructive last length which finally guaranteed a victory that had appeared far from certain.”

In The Independent, her performance was reduced to a mugshot-sized photo of her holding her gold medal and a few graphs in a story questioning the validity of 16-year-old Chinese swimmer Ye Shiewen’s times.

Instead, the British press concentrated on Great Britain’s first men’s gymnastics medal since 1912 (“Britain’s men end 100 years of hurt” screamed The Guardian.). They also buried the British synchronized diving team for going from first to fourth in one dive and trumped Lithuania’s 15-year-old Ruta Meilutyte who started training at England’s Plymouth College when her father moved to Plymouth two years ago.